Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morys, John
MORYS or MORIZ, Sir JOHN (fl. 1340), deputy of Ireland, was probably a member of a Bedfordshire family, who re- presented that county in the parliaments of May 1322, December 1326, December 1332, March 1336, and March 1340. On some of these occasions he was associated with Thomas Studley, who was afterwards his attorney in England. There was also a John Morice or Moriz who represented the borough of Cambridge in the parliaments of December 1326, April 1328, September 1337, February 1338 (Return of Members of Parliament, i. 64-130). Morys was commissioner of array for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1322 and 1324 (Parliamentary Writs, iv. 1195). On 6 March 1327 he was placed on the commission of oyer and terminer for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire to inquire into the taking of prises by members of the royal household, and on 8 March 1327 he was placed on the commission of peace for Bedfordshire. On 8 July 1328 he was going to Ireland, and had letters nominating attorneys to act for him during two years. On 13 March 1329 he had protection for one year again when going to Ireland on the royal service, and on 11 April 1329 had leave to nominate attorneys as before (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward III, 1327-30). In May 1341 (Chart. St. Mary's, Dublin, ii. 382), when he was styled knight, he was said to be acting as deputy in Ireland for Sir John D'Arcy. In this capacity he held a parliament at Dublin in October 1341, when he had to enforce ordinances annulling royal grants made in the king's reign, and acquittances from crown debts, unless granted under the English seal. These measures were unpopular with the Anglo-Irish nobles, who perhaps also despised Morys as a man of small political or social importance. An opposition parliament was accordingly held under the Earl of Desmond at Kilkenny in November 1341, and an appeal made to the king against the abuses of the Irish administration. Morys was soon after displaced by Ralph Ufford. But in April 1346 he procured his own reappointment, and on the news of Ufford's death a few days after was ordered to proceed to Ireland (Gilbert, Viceroys, p. 541). There he arrived on 15 May, and at once released the Earl of Kildare, whom Ufford had imprisoned; but on the great massacre of the English in Ulster during June, Morys was once more displaced, and after this he seems to disappear from history.
[Chartulary of S. Mary's, Dublin (Rolls Ser.); Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland; Leland's Hist, of Ireland; authorities quoted.]